{"id":97164,"date":"2023-03-07T23:46:09","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T23:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/?p=97164"},"modified":"2026-04-08T13:45:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T13:45:58","slug":"ana-first-class-award-devaluation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/news\/virgin-atlantic-flying-club\/ana-first-class-award-devaluation\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgin Atlantic Flying Club No-Notice Devaluation of ANA First Class Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We figured it would happen sooner or later. One of the sweetest sweet spots in the points and miles world was bound to be devalued eventually. And today it happened: Virgin Atlantic Flying Club just increased ANA First Class award rates by up to 42%.<\/p>\n<p>Without notice, the best way to book ANA first class just got a lot more expensive. Yet &#8212; as a sign of just how good of a deal this sweet spot was &#8212; Virgin Atlantic Flying Club likely is still going to be your best option for booking ANA first class awards.<\/p>\n<p>Let's dig into the changes and what they mean for award travelers going forward.<\/p>\n<div id=\"toc_container\" class=\"toc_light_blue no_bullets\"><p class=\"toc_title\">Page Contents<\/p><ul class=\"toc_list\"><li><a href=\"#The_Bad_News\">The Bad News<\/a><ul><li><a href=\"#Flying_Club_increases_ANA_First_Class_award_rates_by_up_to_42\">Flying Club increases ANA First Class award rates by up to 42%<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Still_no_online_booking_option\">Still no online booking option<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Virgin_Atlantic_gave_no_advance_notice_of_this_change\">Virgin Atlantic gave no advance notice of this change<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><a href=\"#The_Good_News\">The Good News<\/a><ul><li><a href=\"#No_changes_to_ANA_business_class_award_rates\">No changes to ANA business class award rates<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#One-way_ANA_First_Class_awards_are_still_an_option\">One-way ANA First Class awards are still an option<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Virgin_Atlantic_Flying_Club_may_still_be_the_best_option\">Virgin Atlantic Flying Club may still be the best option<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><a href=\"#Ways_of_Accumulating_Virgin_Points\">Ways of Accumulating Virgin Points<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Bottom_Line\">Bottom Line<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\n<h2><span id=\"The_Bad_News\">The Bad News<\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span id=\"Flying_Club_increases_ANA_First_Class_award_rates_by_up_to_42\">Flying Club increases ANA First Class award rates by up to 42%<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Obviously, the worst part of these changes is that Flying Club increased the award rates for ANA First Class awards. Affected routes include all U.S. routes as well as ANA's route to London.<\/p>\n<p><em>Technically, this change also affects awards to Europe, Canada, Mexico, Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. However, ANA doesn't currently operate first-class flights to any of these countries.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For years, Virgin Atlantic has used a region-based award chart for award flights on ANA. Although Virgin Atlantic now uses a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/news\/virgin-atlantic-flying-club\/virgin-atlantic-joining-skyteam\/\" rel=\"noopener\">distance-based award chart for most partners<\/a>, it seems to be sticking with a region-based chart for ANA awards &#8212; at least for now.<\/p>\n<p>So, the &#8220;only&#8221; thing that's changed is the award rates. For reference, here are the prior rates:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_80306\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-aspectratio=\"750\/623\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-80306 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/ANA_with_Virgin_Atlantic-300x249.png\" alt=\"Virgin Atlantic Flying Club award chart for ANA awards before March 7, 2023.\" width=\"750\" height=\"623\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/ANA_with_Virgin_Atlantic-300x249.png 300w, https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/ANA_with_Virgin_Atlantic.png 807w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><center><em>Previous Flying Club award chart for ANA awards. Prices listed are for round-trip awards.<\/em><\/enter><\/figure>\n<p>And here's what the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club award chart currently reads for ANA awards:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_97186\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-aspectratio=\"750\/627\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-97186 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Virgin-Atlantic-ANA-award-chart-March-2023-300x251.png\" alt=\"Virgin Atlantic Flying Club award chart for ANA awards effective March 7, 2023.\" width=\"750\" height=\"627\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Virgin-Atlantic-ANA-award-chart-March-2023-300x251.png 300w, https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Virgin-Atlantic-ANA-award-chart-March-2023-1024x856.png 1024w, https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Virgin-Atlantic-ANA-award-chart-March-2023-768x642.png 768w, https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Virgin-Atlantic-ANA-award-chart-March-2023.png 1063w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><center><em>New Flying Club award chart for ANA awards. Prices listed are for round-trip awards.<\/em><\/enter><\/figure>\n<p>We will save you from squinting to find the differences. Here's a recap of what's changed:<\/p>\n\n<table id=\"tablepress-427\" class=\"tablepress tablepress-id-427 tablepress-responsive\">\n<thead>\n<tr class=\"row-1 odd\">\n\t<th class=\"column-1\">Between Japan and...<\/th><th class=\"column-2\">Prior Award Rates<br \/>\n(one-way)<\/th><th class=\"column-3\">New Award Rates<br \/>\n(one-way)<\/th><th class=\"column-4\">% Increase<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody class=\"row-hover\">\n<tr class=\"row-2 even\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">Malaysia \/ Myanmar \/ Singapore \/ Thailand \/ Vietnam<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">40,000 points<\/td><td class=\"column-3\">52,500 points<\/td><td class=\"column-4\">31%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-3 odd\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">Hawaii \/ India \/ Indonesia<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">45,000 points<\/td><td class=\"column-3\">57,500 points<\/td><td class=\"column-4\">28%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-4 even\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">Western USA \/ Australia \/ Canada<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">55,000 points<\/td><td class=\"column-3\">72,500 points<\/td><td class=\"column-4\">32%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-5 odd\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">Central & Eastern USA \/ Europe \/ Mexico<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">60,000 points<\/td><td class=\"column-3\">85,000 points<\/td><td class=\"column-4\">42%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n<h3><span id=\"Still_no_online_booking_option\">Still no online booking option<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Besides finding award availability, one of the main frustrations of booking ANA awards through Flying Club is having to call to book awards through a Virgin Atlantic agent. And that's especially true as phone wait times at Virgin Atlantic can stretch for hours.<\/p>\n<p>When <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/news\/virgin-atlantic-flying-club\/virgin-atlantic-joining-skyteam\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Virgin Atlantic joined SkyTeam<\/a> this week, it immediately added online award booking for many of its new SkyTeam partners. So, we were hopeful that Virgin Atlantic would also add the ability to book ANA awards online. Alas, ANA awards still aren't bookable on Virgin Atlantic's website.<\/p>\n<h3><span id=\"Virgin_Atlantic_gave_no_advance_notice_of_this_change\">Virgin Atlantic gave no advance notice of this change<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Unfortunately, award chart changes are par for the course in the points and miles ecosystem. However, when loyalty programs are set to make a change, it's nice for them to give travelers advanced notice so we can plan accordingly.<\/p>\n<p>For example, <a href=\"\/news\/world-of-hyatt\/hyatt-category-changes\/\">Hyatt is increasing award rates<\/a> at 214 properties on March 28, and Etihad announced that it will overhaul its <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/news\/airlines\/etihad-guest-changes-2023\/\" rel=\"noopener\">sweet-spot-packed award chart<\/a> on March 10. Travelers still have time to take advantage of sweet spots in both programs before changes take effect.<\/p>\n<p>Providing advanced notice shows loyalty to travelers. So, it's a bad sign is that Virgin Atlantic made this change without telling travelers ahead of time.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"The_Good_News\">The Good News<\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span id=\"No_changes_to_ANA_business_class_award_rates\">No changes to ANA business class award rates<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>In today's change, Flying Club didn't increase the award rates for ANA business class. That means you can still book ANA business class &#8212; including the top-tier &#8220;The Room&#8221; &#8212; between Japan and the U.S. at the following rates:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Honolulu for 35,000 Virgin points each way.<\/li>\n<li>Western U.S. for\u00a045,000 Virgin points each way.<\/li>\n<li>Eastern and Central U.S. for 47,500 Virgin points each way.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>However, I'd recommend booking these awards soon if you want to take advantage of this sweet spot. After all, Virgin Atlantic proved today that it won't necessarily give advanced notice of award chart changes.<\/p>\n<h3><span id=\"One-way_ANA_First_Class_awards_are_still_an_option\">One-way ANA First Class awards are still an option<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>In April 2021, Virgin Atlantic began allowing travelers to <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/news\/virgin-atlantic-flying-club\/book-one-way-ana-awards\/\" rel=\"noopener\">book one-way awards on ANA<\/a>. This meant that award travelers no longer needed to find both outbound and return award availability to book an award. Instead, we could jump on booking a one-way award when availability popped up.<\/p>\n<p>One silver lining in today's Flying Club award chart changes is that travelers can still book one-way awards. As stated on the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/flywith.virginatlantic.com\/gb\/en\/flying-club\/airline-partners\/all-nippon-airways\/all-nippon-airways-spend-points.html\" rel=\"noopener\">ANA partner page<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>One-way trips are permitted at half of the round-trip mileage shown below.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>To help compare apples-to-apples, we will continue to reference one-way award prices.<\/p>\n<h3><span id=\"Virgin_Atlantic_Flying_Club_may_still_be_the_best_option\">Virgin Atlantic Flying Club may still be the best option<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Usually jacking up award rates by up to 42% would turn a sweet spot into a dud. But, this sweet spot was so sweet that Flying Club could still be your best option for booking ANA first class awards.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ANA Mileage Club <\/strong>might provide a cheaper award rate &#8212; depending on the season and your route. Low and regular-season awards between the U.S. and Japan cost 150,000 miles round-trip vs. 170,000 Virgin points round-trip for flights to Central\/Eastern U.S.<\/p>\n<p>However, ANA Mileage Club doesn't give travelers the option to book one-way awards. And you'll likely struggle to find round-trip award availability.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Air Canada Aeroplan<\/strong> charges 90,000 Aeroplan points for ANA first class between Honolulu and Tokyo or 110,000 Aeroplan points each way from the mainland U.S.<\/p>\n<p><strong>United MileagePlus\u00a0<\/strong>charges 121,000 United miles each way for ANA first-class award flights &#8212; or even higher within a couple of weeks of departure.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Ways_of_Accumulating_Virgin_Points\">Ways of Accumulating Virgin Points<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Still interested in flying ANA business or first class? In addition to still being one of the best ways to book ANA awards, Virgin points are some of the easiest points to accumulate. Flying Club is a transfer partner of practically every transferrable points program.<\/p>\n<p>Transfers to almost all programs are 1:1 &#8212; meaning you'll get 1 Virgin point per bank point transferred:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/credit-cards\/amex-membership-rewards\/amex-transfer-partners\/\" rel=\"noopener\">American Express Membership Rewards<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/credit-cards\/bilt-rewards\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Bilt Rewards<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/credit-cards\/capital-one-rewards\/capital-one-transfer-partners\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Capital One Miles<\/a> (via Virgin Red)<\/li>\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/credit-cards\/chase-ultimate-rewards\/chase-transfer-partners\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Chase Ultimate Rewards<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/credit-cards\/citi-thankyou-rewards\/citi-transfer-partners\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Citi ThankYou Points<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/hotels\/marriott-bonvoy\/marriott-transfer-partners\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Marriott Bonvoy<\/a> (3:1 transfer rate, plus a 5,000-mile bonus for every 60,000 points transferred)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Even better, two ongoing transfer bonuses can help reduce the sting of the award chart increase. Now through <strong>March 18<\/strong>, you can <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/news\/citi-thankyou-rewards\/virgin-atlantic-transfer-bonus\/\" rel=\"noopener\">transfer Citi ThankYou points to Flying Club<\/a> with a 30% transfer bonus. And now through <strong>March 30<\/strong>, get a 30% transfer bonus when you <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/news\/capital-one-rewards\/virgin-red-transfer-bonus\/\" rel=\"noopener\">transfer Capital One miles to Virgin Red<\/a> &#8212; which you'll need to link to your Flying Club account to use for flights.<\/p>\n<p>During these transfer bonuses, you can transfer just 56k Citi ThankYou points or Capital One miles to have enough Virgin points to book ANA first class one-way between the western U.S. and Japan.<\/p>\n<p><img data-aspectratio=\"750\/386\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-97204 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/transfer-56k-Citi-ThankYou-points-to-72800-Virgin-points-300x154.png\" alt=\"Screenshot showing transferring 56,000 Citi ThankYou points to 72,800 Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points\" width=\"750\" height=\"386\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/transfer-56k-Citi-ThankYou-points-to-72800-Virgin-points-300x154.png 300w, https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/transfer-56k-Citi-ThankYou-points-to-72800-Virgin-points-1024x527.png 1024w, https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/transfer-56k-Citi-ThankYou-points-to-72800-Virgin-points-768x395.png 768w, https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/transfer-56k-Citi-ThankYou-points-to-72800-Virgin-points-1536x790.png 1536w, https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/transfer-56k-Citi-ThankYou-points-to-72800-Virgin-points.png 1621w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Bottom_Line\">Bottom Line<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>We figured that this devaluation was coming. Savvy award travelers breathed a sigh of relief when Virgin Atlantic left ANA award rates intact when it joined SkyTeam earlier this week. However, it seems Virgin Atlantic saved the gut punch for today &#8212; likely so this devaluation wouldn't overshadow its good news.<\/p>\n<p>There's no getting around it: Increasing rates by up to 42% without any notice is a bad look. But this devaluation could be so much worse. Flying Club is still going to be the best option for booking ANA first class awards for most travelers. And we are happy to see that ANA business class award rates haven't been affected &#8212; at least yet. Hopefully the other shoe won't drop soon.<\/p>\n<p>H\/T: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/thriftytraveler.com\/news\/points\/virgin-atlantic-ana-first-class-devaluation\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Thrifty Traveler<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bad news award travelers: One of the best sweet spots in the points and miles ecosystem just got devalued. Effective immediately, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is charging up to 42% more points for ANA first-class awards. Yet, somehow Flying Club might still be the best option for booking these awards. Here&#8217;s a full breakdown of the changes \u2014 and the silver lining in the dark clouds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":52066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12069],"tags":[12764,12036,12766],"coauthors":[36387],"class_list":["post-97164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-ana-mileage-club","tag-major-updates","tag-virgin-atlantic-flying-club"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97164"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255838,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97164\/revisions\/255838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97164"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awardwallet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=97164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}